


Fresh Bones

by scullywolf



Series: TXF: Scenes in Between [39]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-20
Updated: 2015-08-20
Packaged: 2018-04-16 06:07:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4614096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scullywolf/pseuds/scullywolf





	Fresh Bones

_“There was a boy. His name was Bonaparte. Chester Bonaparte?”  
“Sure, Chester. Poor kid. He died six weeks ago in that riot.”_

It took her a minute or so, after Private McAlpin walked away, to find any words at all.

“Mulder, I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but… what are the chances we can find a nice UFO sighting to investigate, next time?” He stared at her, eyebrows raised, and she held up her hand, ticking off items on her fingers. “Death fetishist. Witchcraft. Voodoo. I think I’ve had just about as much of the occult as I can stomach, for a while.”

“Well, I don’t know that I’d necessarily characterize Donnie Pfaster’s pathology as being occult-related, but I agree that we’ve seen quite a few variations on a theme, these past few weeks. You must be getting tired of encountering phenomena you can’t just discount out of hand.”

“That’s not--” She glared at him, relaxing only slightly when she saw the humor in his eyes. “I think I’ve proven myself more than capable of having an open mind when it comes to extreme possibilities, but I also think you’ll agree that it is important to consider the more prosaic explanations for apparent paranormal phenomena as we conduct our investigations. I mean, if neither of us is going to at least _question_ the supernatural explanations, to insist that they stand up to at least some level of analysis, then I would argue that our overall success rate will suffer as a result.”

He put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “I’m just teasing you, Scully. You know I appreciate the role you play in our partnership. I’m just saying, it’s a lot easier to write off mysterious lights in the sky than it is to come to terms with the fact that we just spent the last few days hanging out with a ghost.”

“We can’t know that for sure. I mean, maybe the boy we met gave us a false name. Mulder, ghosts don’t eat french fries.”

“How do you know that? I’ve got a whole stack of X-Files back in the office about corporeal entity encounters.” She could see him fighting to keep the grin off his face. “You’re welcome to dig into those when we get back to Washington.”

“I’ll pass, thanks.” She resisted the urge to stick out her tongue at him. She had a hard enough time reconciling her experience in the car; accepting that they had spent time in the company of a spirit that could eat and drink and manipulate objects was more than she could handle, just now. She withdrew the rental car keys from her pocket and nodded toward the sedan.

“Come on, Mulder. Let’s go home.”


End file.
